A Meal-Delivery App Claims Turf in Seamless’s Own Backyard

When Seamless and GrubHub merged in May 2013, they formed a meal delivery juggernaut that seemed certain to dominate in New York City. But two years later, a new player has begun to compete, even outpacing Seamless, a New York native, in some of the city’s neighborhoods.

Residents of Brooklyn Heights and Williamsburg are regularly ordering in with an app called DoorDash instead of the usual suspects.

The company began operating in Brooklyn in April and in Manhattan in June. Six months in, New York is one of its “fastest-growing markets,” according to its chief executive, Tony Xu. Like many start-ups, DoorDash does not share specific data about its operations, though it claims rapid growth in the city and is said to be approaching $1 billion in venture capital backing.

Seamless works by coordinating with restaurants that already offer delivery service. That includes thousands of pizzerias, diners and Mexican, Chinese, Japanese and Thai places throughout the city.

DoorDash has partnered with many restaurants that do not deliver through Seamless, its greatest competitive advantage. Many of these restaurants are more upscale, although its model does allow DoorDash to deliver meals from McDonald’s and other fast-food restaurants that do not offer such service. Another advantage for customers, particularly in Brooklyn, is a broad delivery radius that Seamless often cannot match. Ordering food in Manhattan costs $2 to $3; in Brooklyn, it costs $3 to $4. DoorDash also takes a commission from the restaurants.

DoorDash uses a courier model popularized by Uber, meaning that it sends independent contractors to pick up and deliver orders. Using this structure places the company at the center of a debate over whether apps are incorrectly classifying employees as contractors. Indeed, DoorDash was one of the parties accused of doing so in a recent lawsuit filed in California. It has also faced legal trouble over using modified versions of merchants’ logos.

Mr. Xu offers a standard defense of the courier model, saying the company treated its “dashers,” as it calls its delivery workers, “exactly as our customers, and we always want to give our customers what they want.” For the dashers, that means flexibility. DoorDash is also in a group of companies that have pledged, through involvement in a workers’ rights framework called the Good Work Code, to support policies in workers’ best interests.

Those who are dubious of the contractor model might reasonably question DoorDash’s relationship with its delivery staff. But as Mr. Xu points out, there is no reason to think that those who deliver Seamless orders have it any better. As long as DoorDash honors the pledge outlined in the Good Work Code, diners should feel comfortable ordering from whichever service offers the food they feel like eating.